Seeing the Kingdom
At night a teacher of the Jewish Law named Nicodemus, a Pharisee, met with Jesus. Most Pharisees were antagonistic toward Jesus but Nicodemus was not. He told Jesus that he believed that God was with Him because of the miracles Jesus had done. Then Jesus said an amazing thing to Nicodemus’ “Truly, truly, I say to you, Unless a man is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God” [John 3:3].
Entering the Kingdom
Nicodemus couldn’t get his head around that. How can anyone be born a second time? Jesus went on to explain that He was talking about a spiritual rebirth not a physical one and that one must be born again to enter the Kingdom of God [John 3:5-6].
Becoming New
When a person acknowledges that they need a savior, when one humbles themselves and call on Jesus to cleanse them of their sins, their spirit is born anew to God. The Bible also calls this “a new creation” [2 Corinthians 5:17].
Renewing the Mind
If you have believed in you heart and confessed with you mouth that Jesus is Lord [Romans 10:9] you are a new creation, your spirit has been born again. But your mind was not born again. That may surprise you but its true. The Bible says that we are to transform ourselves by renewing our minds [Romans 12:2]. God left that part to us. One way to renew our minds is found in Philippians 4:8 – “whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. The Bible instructs us that scripture is profitable for training in righteousness [2 Timothy 3:16-17].